The summary of the Quran
O honorable ones! Praise to Allah ﷻ that He ﷻ granted us Ramadhan and also granted us the Quran. There is a very special connection between Ramadhan and the Quran. Alhamdulillah! Today we recited the first juzz of Quran where first came the Surah Fatiha . It is very difficult to give a summary of the whole Quran in a very short time but the beauty of Quran is that one could give the summary of the Quran in two minutes when he cannot narrate the tafsir (commentary) of the Quran in the whole of his lifetime. Such a great wealth! One of the great mufassir (commentator) of Quran, Hazrat Ahmed Ali Roohaani (RA) says that if any person asks him, “O Ahmed Ali tell me the summary of the tafsir of the Quran” and the whistle was already blown for the train to start and one of my legs is inside the train and the other outside, then even in this very short time, he can tell him the summary of the tafsir of the whole Quran that the summary of the whole Quran is to worship Allah ﷻ, to obey the Prophet ﷺ and to serve the creations of Allah ﷻ. This is the summary of the whole Quran: to worship Allah ﷻ, to obey the Prophet ﷺ and to serve the creations of Allah ﷻ. The summary of the whole Quran is in Surah Fatiha. The mention of Allah’s ﷻ oneness and His ﷻ greatness, the risaalat (the finality of the Prophethood) of the Prophet ﷺ, the mention of life after death; the beautiful end of those who followed the commands of Allah ﷻ and the humiliating and disgraceful end of those who clashed against the nizaam (governance) of Allah ﷻ, all these are summarized in Surah Fatiha which has been presented in the whole of the Quran. The whole Quran is comprised in the above five things whose summary is in the Surah Fatiha. Perhaps this is why Allah ﷻ made this to be heard and read repeatedly in every salah for the Muslims so the summary of the Quran remain afresh in their hearts and minds. When the summary of the whole Quran is in the Surah Fatiha, the summary of the Surah Fatiha is in the “Ba” of the “Bismillaah”. The Arabic meaning of “Ba” is to connect, which means the summary of the Quran is to connect the slave with his Allah ﷻ.
Surat-ud-Duaa
O honorable ones! Let the good thing happen that we get to hear some tafsir of Quran that we hear and recite and let Allah ﷻ so make it happen that this season becomes a means of our connection with Allah ﷻ. And the one who gets connected to Allah ﷻ will be protected from the arrows of all the distress, trials, worries and restlessness of this world. One of the names of the Surah Fatiha is also Surat-ud-Duaa in which Allah ﷻ has showed the slave the method of requesting. Praise Allah ﷻ, exalt Allah ﷻ, place your humility in the presence of Allah ﷻ and then present your maqsood (purpose) in the court of Allah ﷻ. And what is that maqsood? Ya Allah! Grant me the guidance. If an employer tells you to bring a letter of request when you ask him for leave, then it means that the employer is willing to grant you leave and that is why he is giving you the instruction. Similarly Allah ﷻ is showing the slave the method of request which means Allah ﷻ is willing to offer His ﷻ slave. O honorable ones! When a slave makes duaa to Allah ﷻ with firm belief in his heart and placing trust in Allah ﷻ, then Allah ﷻ doesn’t reject the duaa. Yes but Allah ﷻ is Hakeem (wise). Even when a child asks the mother for ice cream, in place of ice cream she gives an apple. Allah ﷻ too does like that. A slave asks for something and Allah ﷻ grants him some other thing because Allah ﷻ has more ilm (knowledge), wisdom and affection than the mother. A slave asks something from his point of view and Allah ﷻ grants him something from His ﷻ own grandeur. O honorable ones! But there is one thing in the whole world which has no replacement to be given in Jannah or in the form of reward. If the slave asks for that thing with the real quest to Allah ﷻ, then he will be definitely granted. If a person asks for a son, maybe he will get a replacement in Jannah, if he asks for wealth, maybe he will get a replacement in Jannah, is he asks for health, maybe he will get a replacement in Jannah, if he asks for his own house, maybe he will get a replacement in Jannah and if there is one thing that will be granted right in this world if a slave asks with true quest is hidaayat (guidance) from Allah ﷻ because its replacement is only in dunya and not in the akhirat. So if anyone seeks guidance from Allah ﷻ with true quest, then Allah ﷻ will definitely grant him the guidance. Thus the other name of the Surah is Surat-ud-Duaa. Plead to Allah ﷻ by praising Him ﷻ, exalting Him ﷻ, placing your inability, dependency and neediness before Allah ﷻ. “ihdinas siraatal mustaqeem” –Guide me to the straight path.
Allah ﷻ then shows the guidance. Siraatal-laziina ‘an-‘amta ‘alay him “Do you need guidance, then embrace the path of those who are on the straight path, upon whom is the inaam (favor) of Allah ﷻ and those were the Prophets, siddiqeen, martyrs and the righteous” Embrace them and Allah ﷻ will guide you to the straight path. Gayril-magdhuubi ‘alay him wa laz-zaaalliin. Who is maghdhuub (those who angered Allah ﷻ)? Maghdhood are those who had the ilm but no righteous deeds. Zaalleen are of that group who out of ignorance became astray. And saalih (righteous) is the one who is fortunate to have correct knowledge and also the amal (righteous deeds). If you got such people on the earth, then it is blessed for you got the guide, the path to paradise, the property and target of guidance. So just hold on to them, you will find it useful. When Allah ﷻ has made them the means of guidance, Allah ﷻ has also made the Allah’s Book as the means of guidance in addition to the people of Allah ﷻ. Then comes Surah Baqarah, where in is the mention of the Book, the guide to those who fear Allah ﷻ.
The three groups of people
In the start of the Surah Baqarah, three groups have been mentioned. The first group is of those who are successful, the group of Muslims whose characteristics are that they believe in the unseen. Without seeing they believe in Allah ﷻ, without seeing they believe in Jannah, without seeing they believe in jahannam, without seeing they believe in the life after death, without seeing they believe in the life of Qabr, without seeing they believe in angels and without seeing they believe in the Books descended from the heaven. When this is one quality of a Muslim believing in unseen, the other quality is that he will worship Allah ﷻ physically, that is he will pray salah and he pleases Allah ﷻ through his wealth. Allah ﷻ mentions that these are the successful ones. Let Allah ﷻ make the standard of the Muslims’ success in the light of the Quran. Our standard of success is that if a person’s wishes are fulfilled more, then he has become successful. O honorable ones! This is not so, the one who got the property of eemaan has become successful. Living in a hut or a palace, it is he who got the victory who got the wealth of hidaayat.
The second group is that of the Kuffar who out of adamancy and arrogance got deprived of the wealth of hidaayat. After a certain time when he himself finishes all the qualities of hidaayat, Allah ﷻ sealed his heart when once such people used to be wise. Abu Jahl was once called Abul Hakam, the one who makes wise decisions, had far sightedness, sharp in judgment but when his heart got sealed, then he couldn’t understand the miracle sent to the Prophet ﷺ, the Quran and became deprived of hidaayat. And the third group is that of the munaafiqeen (hypocrites) who have always become snakes in sleeves of the Muslims. Outwardly they accept Islam but have only hatred for Muslims in their hearts. They wage war against the Muslims in a hidden way. This is the group that makes fun of the deen and the people of Allah ﷻ saying they are fools and of backward when thinking themselves to be very intelligent and far sighted. This is the group whose religion and path tend to be the worldly benefits. If he gets worldly benefit through Islam, he raises the flag of Islam and whenever his worldly benefits fall in danger, he renounces Islam. The mention of these munaafiqeen is in many verses. After mentioning those, Allah ﷻ gives couple of similitude regarding them that these people are blind, deaf and dumb and they remain in the darkness, and they cannot see or hear.
The excellence of mankind
After this is the mention of oneness of Allah ﷻ and truthfulness of the Book of Allah ﷻ. It is mentioned that even if the whole of the mankind gathers, they cannot bring a Surah like in the Quran and not just the Surah, they cannot even bring an aayat like in the Quran. Allah ﷻ then gives example of smallest of the smallest creatures like a mosquito in the ayat. When a similitude is made, it is made only in accordance with the thing compared. Based on wisdom, this world is worth comparable only to a mosquito and only in accordance to this, Allah ﷻ presented the similitude. Allah ﷻ then mentions about the creation of mankind. Allah ﷻ gave the mankind the Khilafat in this world and granted him the responsibility. Then Allah ﷻ made the man as a masjood (a thing of prostration) for the angels. Allah ﷻ gave this honor to the man because he has in him the ability to gain knowledge. Allah ﷻ then mentions about Bani Israel who were favored with countless blessings. They were also blessed with blessings in an unnatural way. But the nation was such an ungrateful nation that they repeatedly made promise to Allah ﷻ and His Prophet (AS) but repeatedly falsified the aayats and broke the promise. Allah ﷻ then debased this nation from the status of honor and put them in humiliation and disgrace. Allah ﷻ mentions that the Jews and Christians can never be the well wishers of the Muslims and in fact they have worst hatred towards Muslims in their hearts and have worst racist attitude towards them in their hearts and they never want the Muslims to progress, to flourish, ascent and gain any honor. They have lots of things in their hearts which they may not express openly but they only wish the Muslims become Jews and Christians.
The standard of success
Allah ﷻ asks the people of eemaan to establish salah and turn towards Allah ﷻ all the time. These Jews and Christians do not have unity even among them and call each other irreligious. Allah ﷻ mentions about Hazrat Ibrahim who became the leader of the mankind. Allah ﷻ put him in different trials and tribulations but he came out from every trial victorious. Allah ﷻ granted him the rank of leader of the mankind. Through the hands of Hazrat Ibrahim , Allah ﷻ built the kaaba and by the result of his prayer brought the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ to this world and even the existence of this ummah is the result of the duaa of the Prophet Ibrahim . Allah ﷻ then brings out the task of the Prophet ﷺ that he teaches people Quran, its tafsir and purifies people. The success of the followers of the Prophet ﷺ was mentioned for whoever abandons his way will go astray. Allah ﷻ says if we believe like Sahabahs believed then our eemaan too will become reliable. The Sahabahs are standards when it comes to eemaan and truth. Only those who bring eemaan like them and who tread their path will become successful. Allah ﷻ then mentions about one of the propagandas of the Jews about the change of qiblah of the Muslims from Bait-ul-Muqaddas to Bait-ul-Allah towards which the Muslims started praying salah. The Jews started the propaganda that what sort of strange deen is that where people sometimes turn to that side and this side. Allah ﷻ replied that there is nothing in Bait-ul-Muqaddas or Bait-ul-Allah but it is mainly the command of Allah ﷻ that matters. The command was first to turn towards Bait-ul-Muqaddas and turning towards it was the ibaadat (worship) and now the command is to turn towards Bait-ul-Allah and turning now towards it was the ibaadat (worship). So the real thing is about the following the command of Allah ﷻ and His ﷻ obedience is the worship and this is calledthe servitude.
Seek Allah’s ﷻ help through patience and salah
The Rabbul Aalameen tells the people of eemaan that if they need His ﷻ help then seek through patience and prayer through which He ﷻ grants His ﷻ help. Allah ﷻ says not to call those who die in His ﷻ path and sacrificed their lives for His ﷻ deen as dead for they are having an excellent life with Him ﷻ for which thousand lives can be sacrificed. Allah ﷻ tests one by taking something from him or granting something to him and whoever exercise patience, he attains the goal and say “inna lillaahi wa inna ilaihi raajioon”. We and everything of us belong to Allah ﷻ and He ﷻ has the right to take away anything from us and when we return to Him ﷻ we will get the reward from Him ﷻ. Whoever has such patience, on him will be the shower of Allah’s ﷻ mercy. It is mentioned that safa and marwaa are from the signs of Allah ﷻ. There used to be idols here before the advent of Islam after which they became the signs of Allah ﷻ where in Muslims used to made duaa during “sai”.
The lowly act of hiding the truth
Those people are the most unfortunate ones who for few worthless pennies hide the truth and they have the curse of Allah ﷻ. Allah’s ﷻ tawheed (oneness) is then mentioned that Allah ﷻ is one and unique in His being and having the characteristics. See the governance of the world which is run solely by Allah ﷻ and see Whose command runs in the wind and breeze of this world and see Who pegged the mountains on the earth and Who brought forth the fruits and grains from the earth. Everything invites towards Allah’s ﷻ tawheed and Power. Allah ﷻ says, “O people eat that is pure”. Allah ﷻ calls us towards righteousness while shaitaan calls towards evil. Allah ﷻ then mentions about the forbidden things that pig is haram, the meat that is slaughtered in the name of other than Allah ﷻ is haram, the flowing blood is haram and animals that are dead are haram to consume. Allah ﷻ repeatedly mentions not to hide the truth for it is such a lowly act to buy the misguidance in place of few worthless pennies. It is a thing of great courage to have patience over the punishment of Allah ﷻ for hiding the truth for worldly benefits. This is how Allah ﷻ disapproves the act of hiding the truth for worldly benefits and this is the summary of the first juzz of Quran.
Let Allah ﷻ help us to act on what we hear, write and read. Ameen
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